UFC Fight Night: Lee Yi-sak vs Luis Felipe Dias Preview & Prediction
Two grapplers make their way to Macau, Brazilian submission specialist Luis Felipe Dias welcomes South Korea’s Yi Sak Lee in their middleweight clash.
Lee Yi-sak vs Luis Felipe Dias facts
What time are Lee Yi-sak and Luis Felipe Dias expected to walk out?
Where is UFC Fight Night: Song vs Figueiredo? Galaxy Arena, Macau SAR, China
Where can I get tickets for UFC Fight Night: Song vs Figueiredo? Click here for the latest ticket information for UFC Fight Night 277
What TV channel is UFC Fight Night: Song vs Figueiredo on? UK – TNT Sports / USA – Paramount
Where can I stream UFC Fight Night: Song vs Figueiredo? UK – TNT Sports can stream the event online via the TNT Sports website and HBO Max / USA – Paramount+ & UFC Fight Pass
UFC Fight Night: Song vs Figueiredo main card
Song Yadong vs Deiveson Figueiredo (Bantamweight)
Zhang Mingyang vs Alonzo Menifield (Light Heavyweight)
Sergei Pavlovich vs Tallison Teixeira (Heavyweight)
Kai Asakura vs Cameron Smotherman (Bantamweight)
Alex Perez vs Su Mudaerji (Flyweight)
UFC Fight Night: Song vs Figueiredo prelims
Lee Yi-sak vs Luis Felipe Dias (Middleweight)
Ding Meng vs Jose Henrique Souza (Welterweight)
Aori Qileng vs Cody Haddon (Bantamweight)
Angela Hill vs Xiong Jingnan (Women’s Strawweight)
Loma Lookboonmee vs Jaqueline Amorim (Women’s Strawweight)
Zhu Kangjie vs Rodrigo Vera (Featherweight)
Rei Tsuruya vs Luis Gurule (Bantamweight)
Jake Matthews vs Carlston Harris (Welterweight)
Lee Yi-sak: Korean Top Team grappler makes his debut
Yi Sak Lee (8-1) arrives having gone unbeaten on the Korean regional scene with a 87% finishing rate across his eight wins. The 26-year-old fighter is grapple-heavy and frantic, throwing strong ground and pound shots from top position. He doesn’t appear to be particularly big for middleweight, looking like he fights close to his natural weight. His single defeat showed us a weakness, he was taken down repeatedly by a stronger grappler, transitioned to the back with ease, and lost via a second-round rear-naked choke.
Luis Felipe Dias: Brazilian finisher with a nasty back-take
Luis Felipe Dias (16-5) earned his UFC contract by submitting the highly-touted Donavon Hedrick via rear-naked choke on DWCS, a very impressive win given how dominant Hedrick looked regionally. The 30-year-old is a powerful, tank-like grappler who kind of reminds me of now heavyweight, Vitor Petrino. Dias has seven wins by knockout and eight wins by submission. He transitions really well on the mat, mixes in ground and pound to open up submissions, and is absolutely lethal once he gets on the back. His striking can be a weakness – stiff and mechanical, though he does possess enough power to turn anyone’s lights off.
Lee Yi-sak vs Luis Felipe Dias prediction
This is a grappler VS grappler match up where the tape points fairly clearly towards Dias winning. Both fighters don’t see the final bell much, between them they’ve ended all but two fights inside the distance, so I don’t think this will go to the judges.
The reason why I lean toward Dias is two things. First, the physical mismatch, Dias is an absolute tank for the division and should be the stronger, more powerful man on the feet and in grappling exchanges. On the feet Lee may be the slightly cleaner striker but Dias hits harder and only needs one big shot to either win the fight, or drag it into his world. Second, and more importantly, we’ve seen Lee lose against this exact type of fighter, but this time, that fighter looks even stronger than the last. Lee was taken down, had his back taken, and choked out, and that was barely 18 months ago. Dias’ most dangerous weapon is that exact sequence, his rear-naked is nasty.
Give me the Brazilian to do what he always does.
Prediction: Luis Felipe Dias to win by submission
